'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?' thread

[Serge]

Managed to watch four episodes yesterday.

Heart  To Heart sees Terry's sensitive side rear its head and he comes across all the better for it. The scene between him and Susan on the dock towards the end is great, so well done without getting overly sentimental or mawkish. (And of course, Terry bounces back by getting together with an air hostess before the episode's out.) Bob comes across very badly in this episode, wanting to go and check out 'naughty' down the Wheatsheaf, acting like a complete twat in the scene at the Chambers' house towards the end, etc. Thelma shows great restraint in only putting a tea-cosy over his head. And, as mentioned before, Noel Dyson just isn't as good as Mrs. Chambers.

The Ant And The Grasshopper is one of my favourite episodes - in fact, I have called it my favourite of all before now, but I think it's mainly because it comes across as a celebration of Terry's aimless lifestyle over Bob's working drudgery (whether that was intended or not is another matter...!) As someone who has been in Bob's position for most of the past three decades, I'd be happy to have a bit of Terry time!

Second appearances by Alan and Brenda (so the fall-out with Bob & Thelma can't have been too drastic) and Wendy, Bob's secretary. I like Julian Holloway a little less in this one, he seems like an escapee from a later Carry-On film, though I do like the bit where he pushed the bill back at Bob whilst laughing. Terry's more cro-magnon side comes out in the scene in the Casino (with a young(er) Vicki Michelle on his arm), though the bit with the fruit machine is brilliantly done - not only does he borrow 5p from Bob, Bob actually has his hand on the arm of the machine when it has its winning pull! I also like the earlier scene where Terry has his blow-out in the pub[nb]and the fact that his and Bob's food and drinks come to the princely sum of 82p![/nb] and complaind about the bitter wind between the billiard hall and the pub.

One For The Road is great, though it feels slightly odd, as Terry doesn't appear at all until over ten minutes in. Bob is at his very worst in this episode - the architect of all of his own misfortune, but petulantly whining and blaming everybody else in sight. (And I don't like the way that he deflects Thelma from criticising his drinking by invoking the idea that Terry is worse). The scene where Bob gets into the wrong seat in the car is brilliant - Bewes' face is a mask of helplessness and incomprehension.

I love the exchange where Bob says that Terry's behaviour will land him in prison, and Terry points out that it has and that the first person he bumps into is Bob! Robert Gillespie is great again - his stammering after the 'blood or urine?' line is perfect. And another great pay-off.

And then possibly my least favourite episode - which I still like! - The Great Race. It just feels a bit 'traditional sitcom' in places rather than specifically 'Likely Lads', mainly in the second half, to be sure - the first half does contain a decent amount of reminiscing, oneupmanship and all of the other trademarks of the Lads. Another scene featuring the moonscapes of demolished Newcastle. "We'll have the fat one." Terry's bitter lemon. The audience in fits again at the sight of Bob's bare legs. One scene that always annoys me is Terry's demolishing of the picnic - he could easily have stayed on the road and avoided them, and it's the most contrived gag in the whole two series. But the reveal that both Lads have been cheating makes up for that - fantastic stuff.

[Twibbie]

Heart to heart, The ant and the grasshopper and One for the road form an amazing string of episodes. The former contains superb performances from just about everyone, some brilliant lines (Bob ruefully agreeing that Thelma's strength being knowing "when to say no" hints at so much), a romantic plot which is pragmatically honest and Susan's superb pay-off when she and Terry get back. The appeal of Bob's lifestyle getting under Terry's skin is something we don't see up until this point (EDIT: that's not quite true, it's hinted at somewhat in Moving on but it's fleshed out considerably here) and it paints Terry as vulnerable and full of self-doubt.

The ant and the grasshopper and One for the road come across as totally effortless, the pure quintessence of the show. Having constructed and refined our heroes and perfected their nuances, Clement and La Frenais just let little events happen to them knowing that the strength of the characters writes the rest of the episode itself. Perhaps all that's missing is some of the the more barbed feeling regarding Bob's class transposition (and Terry's lack thereof) - although The ant and the grasshopper is about a lot of this stuff on the surface, there's less sense of Terry feeling betrayed by Bob which is my favourite dynamic during series one of Whatever. There are a ton of great gags in these two episodes but "There's nothing wrong with Collier '74" in One for the road is an amazingly crafted line - simultaneously spontaneously crude, a mocking call-back to Bob's wine infatuation and a perfect snapshot of both the manners and attitudes that differentitate the two characters. And despite the fact that the series sometimes relies on unlikely coincidences (something i felt reached its nadir in the film) none of it is contrived here. Amazing stuff from start to end.

The great race by contrast... well if anything to me it's the opposite of how you describe it. The first ten minutes are extremely expositional, almost like it's a reunion episode written for people who were never familiar with the characters before. There are still some lovely details - Bob tapping under his cheek in pub - but on the other hand the mention of Bob's emergency stops is the perfect opportunity to recall Rocker which goes wasted. The waste ground shots are lovely, and Terry filling/supping Newkie Brown from his bidons is eternally funny. The jokes are there, and they work; but it all feels a bit The likely lads on holiday to me, almost like a week off from the regular show.

[Serge]

a mocking call-back to Bob's wine infatuation

Christ, I'd never made that connection before! Like I said before, some of the subtleties in the writing are beyond belief.

The likely lads on holiday to me, almost like a week off from the regular show.

Maybe that's why I see it as a slightly 'lesser' episode, I don't know. As I say, I still love it, but if I had to pick a least favourite...

One thing I forgot to mention in 'Heart To Heart' is Brigit Forsyth's little movement when Bob implies that Terry and Susan have been getting it on on the sofa where she's sat. Just a little chill passes over her heart for a second!

Last night I watched the linked episodes Some Day We'll Laugh About This and In Harm's Way. It's hard not to notice that the view out of the Scottish hotel window is almost exactly the same as that from the Norwegian hotel window earlier in the series. (Not to mention that Morag from Peebles seems to be at both places...) The subtle mention of Dan and Kathleen, who we never see, but whose house hosts the fancy dress party in the Christmas special. I love Tony Haygarth in this episode - his face is just cheeky enough to get away with the sleaze that he's talking about (even during the 'whooarrr!' moment on the milk float.) And Helen Cotterill (later in two memorable episodes of 'Open All Hours') is great as the woman at Number 39.

'In Harms Way' is a flashback to the episode in the original 'Likely Lads' where one of them ends up in hospital with some sort of leg injury (maybe I should have kicked off by rewatching them after all...) Two future 'Fawlty Towers' guest stars appear in this episode - Claire Nielson as the Scottish woman at the dole office, and the excellent Louis Mahoney as the porter. Some of-it's-time, but instantly deflated, racism from Terry (and perfectly in keeping with his character.) Bolam reprised the surgical mask joke (though with bandages, I think) in 'Only When I Laugh'. The mounting series of misfortunes that he inflicts on Bob builds perfectly logically, and the final scene is one of my favourites (though doesn't it rather give the game away about the identity of the masked maniac? I suppose Terry could claim he merely nicked the mask while he was 'visiting' Bob.)

[Twibbie]

The hospital episode form the original series is Rocker, it even features Terry charging Bob around in a wheelchair (and vice versa).

Terry's racism, although consistent with his character, is poorly handled and as you say very much of its time. The north east is hardly a major centre of black population now, never mind in the mid 70s but even so it becomes clear straight away that the black porter (i don't think we even hear his name, unlike Vic) is just a prop for the scene which his undermining of Terry doesn't really negate (less still the Sydney Poitier line). What's even worse is that decades later this is still often the case for minority characters.

I do love the masked maniac though. The bit where his face appears at the door always gives me a laugh, and the bit where Thelma asks him to lower Bob's leg is brilliant - the way he starts limping and looking away and refusing to talk, as though Terry's instantly conjured up a genuine gargoyle of a character.

[Serge]

I like the idea that Thelma thinks he's 'one of a hundred'. And just to nitpick - surely Bob would recognise Terry's eyes when he turns around in his wheelchair? Or at least do a double-take?

Anyway, into my favourite run of episodes next - the four episode arc of Thelma leaving Bob - which I'll probably watch tomorrow and try and get on here to post about as soon as I can (my computer at home is stubbornly refusing to come back to life, so it's work computers or nothing at the minute....)

[Serge]

Jurassic Park is back online! Somehow managed to fix both my computer and internet, but would never be able to tell you how.

So anyway, I started on the 'Bob And Thelma Separation' arc. Affairs And Relations is just magnificent, building and building to the inevitable ending[nb]Although....Bob could get the barmaid to confirm that she was looking for Terry rather than him....[/nb] and full of great scenes and dialogue. I do love that you never actually hear any of the ongoing phone calls between Bob and Thelma. Carole Ann Ford is excellent as Valerie, and if I can be brutally sexist yet again, looks bloody gorgeous. "If you will keep saying you're not guilty in that guilt-ridden voice!" 2p for a phone call! And Bolam's face at the moment when he realises that he will be spending the night with Beryl is a masterpiece of subtle expression change.

The Expert doesn't feel the need to bring on Mr Chambers or Beryl to recap on the events of the previous episode (though it is a bit much for Bob to say that it's Terry's fault that he's in a mess, when it's ultimately Mr Chambers who is to blame.) "Drink that while it's hot" (although that line has already been used in a previous episode, I think) and the inevitable subversion of it in the pub. The shot of Little Norman when Bob is speaking to who he thinks is Thelma in the bedroom. First appearance by the wonderful Anthea. "Chilblains?" And Terry does fully deserve a faceful of Bovril at the end, for once.

[Serge]

And finished the arc this evening. Between Ourselves finds Terry and Bob on better terms, even if Bob is bringing Terry up on personal habits from twenty years previously. "I saw your lips move, Norman." I love the scene following Terry inadvertantly revealing the break-up to Audrey, with a flock of trolley-pushing women being gossiped to at full force by her. The scene in the Venetian Cafe is great (even if the backdrop of the houses opposite is clearly a painting), though Terry's wink is fairly slimy. And I like Bob's slightly delayed, "...pardon?" when Anthea has a go at him.

The Go-Between has some of my favourite moments of all in - for a start, the fact that Terry used the toaster to defrost chops (which isn't so far-fetched - a friend of mine once tried to warm up soup by putting it in a kettle.) The scene towards the end between Terry and Thelma is great, with them both loathing the same things about Bob. But its crowning moment is the way that Terry manages to drink four glasses of sherry. Sheila Fearn is particularly good in this episode, playing Aud as a nosey parker whilst trying not to appear as one (I love the way she cranes her neck to look further into the house when Bob lets her in). And the misunderstanding that Bob might have killed Terry is perfectly realised.

[Serge]

Finished series two this evening. Conduct Unbecoming is another favourite episode of mine, not least because of the two guest stars - the always excellent James Cossins and the mighty Alun Armstrong[nb]Who is yet another Likely Lads/Porridge actor. Not to mention the other Bolam connections in his acting career - Neville Keaton, the character he played in 'Get Lost!' (1981) was transformed into Trevor Chaplin for the Beiderbecke Trilogy; and of course, both men were in 'New Tricks'.[/nb]. This is writing at its best - the fact that they manage to set up Bob's fight with Scaife at the point when Terry is in the toilet is a masterstroke. I only realised this time around that Terry's previous conviction that is referred to is the one from 'One For The Road'. Juliet Aykroyd is fantastic as Anthea - I love the dreamy look on her face as she reminisces about past fights in her name. And the scene where Terry and Scaife settle their scores just by talking is brilliant - "I prefer drinking to fighting!" The look on Cossins' face as Terry and Bob brawl in front of him at the end is priceless.

And then another of my least favourite episodes to round it off, The Shape Of Things To Come often seems like one long mean-spirited rant against Terry (I particularly dislike Audrey referring to her own brother as 'that'.) But there are still great bits - the whole scene with Bob & Terry eating chips and reminiscing about their younger days is marvellous, and evokes the times they're talking about perfectly. It's a shame that they misspell the sign for Studleigh Mount. And the scene at the crematorium is another classic - I'm sad to say that, as un-PC as it is, I always laugh at, "They're all puffs in Harrogate." It struck me that Thelma isn't in this episode at all, though she is mentioned a few times.

One last reference to Terry's injury that he never talks about, bringing it to 11 over all (I thought there would be more.)

Will try and watch the Christmas special and the film before the week's out.

[Twibbie]

I have quite a few bugs with the Thelma-leaves-Bob episodes. It makes no sense why Bob blames Terry for the whole debacle and Thelma's dad escapes scot-free. Also i find some of Terry's bigoted attitudes in Between ourselves and The go-between start to wear. Without the social mobility dynamic to play off - Terry externalising all his own shortcomings by blaming everyone else in the world - it jars with his new-found tolerance and understanding of Bob's irascibility towards him and comes across as gratuitous. On the other hand, domestic Terry is great. And i do love watching Bolam act hurt, it's one of my favourite things in all creative fiction. I also love watching Terry and Thelma's one-to-one scenes and it's a bit of a shame there aren't more of them throughout the series.

I really like Conduct unbecoming for many of the reasons you describe, but also because Forsyth always nails the deadpan "oh for fuck's sake" expression. I'm always a bit surprised that they eschew showing Terry coming out from the toilets and seeing Bob in a fight, and Bob saying, "And where have you been?!" "In the lavatory." That seems like the natural punchline.

Compared to the break-up episodes, Terry's much better in The shape of things to come, i don't think it's harsh at all. No-one's letting him off the hook (Milbourne is fantastic again) so his defences of Jacob's (and his own) bigotries as being part of "character" show him afraid to leave his critical comfort zone again, which makes him as humane and relatable as he usually is. One thing which is strange, when they talk about black sheep in the family, and Terry starts going on about Thelma's "pure" family... and neither of them mention her dad! Am i missing something or is this a ridiculous oversight?

I could almost swear that Juliet Aykroyd is the same actor as Coral Atkins from series one, it's only from searching online that i see it's definitely not a pseudonym. Haven't seen either in anything else, i don't think.

[Serge]

... and neither of them mention her dad!

Funnily enough, that struck me this time around, too. I can kind of see that Bob, being slightly cowardly, would rather brush the whole idea of Mr Chambers having an affair under the carpet and forget it ever happened, which would explain why he doesn't pursue it further during the break-up....though that still doesn't explain why Terry doesn't, or why Bob should blame Terry in the first place.

Juliet Aykroyd is in an episode of 'Open All Hours' as one of Granville's dream women, but I don't think I've seen her in anything other than that either. A quick google reveals that that episode of 'Open All Hours' was her last screen credit, but she seems to have been quite busy in theatre, both as an actress and playwright.

[Serge]

And finally, the Special Christmas Edition.[nb]Titled 'The Likely Lads', no 'Whatever Happened To?'[/nb] This is probably my favourite comedy christmas special (it vies with 'Blackadder's Christmas Carol' for that title) and I always like to watch it sometime close to the festive season. Height of summer this time, though...!

Bewes looks well with a beard. I can never figure out if the fact that he's holding a paper up is to cover the fact he has a beard and then give it a big reveal, but he doesn't do a very good job of it, if that's the case! Though the reveal that it is actually still only 28th September is a good one. Interesting that Bob hasn't meant to have seen Terry for months, given the ending of 'The Shape Of Things To Come'. Nice touch that Terry passes his test on the first go, as Bob is meant to have taken a few goes to pass his. Into the pub, and one of my favourite lines ever: "I lost me cherry!" ("Not before time.")

I love the look that passes between Terry and Jack in the second pub scene when Bob is listing all of the reasons he loves Christmas. Although I love Christmas myself, I always think that Terry's Christmas (lie in, game of doms down the Fat Ox, etc) doesn't sound so bad. First and only mention of Terry's other sister Linda in the whole of 'Whatever' (I assume she was mentioned at some point in the original show.) The contrast between the childhood christmasses is quite poignant.

The audience in fits again at the sight of Bob dressed as a pirate. They make extensive use of the two extras dressed as a maid and a farmer at the party. Another nice scene between Terry and Thelma. Not sure why the policeman just stands outside the door without ringing the bell! And then one of the greatest endings of all time. I like the fact that Terry is supremely well-behaved throughout this episode, even getting his round in because he's earning rather than tapping Bob (though I suppose getting Thelma to give him the whole tenner is a bit rich), so it makes Bob's bad behaviour seem all the worse.

And that's it, I've rattled through the lot again. I was going to watch the movie next, which I was sure I had on DVD, but there seems to be a massive gap in my collection there. If I get around to watching it again in the near future, I'll bump this thread.

[Twibbie]

It's a good episode, plenty of great lines and doesn't outstay the 45-minute format at all. As monkfromhavan mentioned the scene with the forklift is super, i always think of it as a kind of fore-runner to the famous naked shimmying scene from One foot in the grave which was also a christmas episode.

We see the exterior of the Black Horse. It's always a bit odd seeing shots like that for places you've only seen as studios, they're somehow never quite as you imagine. But the lone illuminated star on the outside wall seems about right.

Thanks for all the effort you've put into these, it's been really enjoyable going through them all again. I will watch the film again in the next few days and see if i like it any better at the second time of asking. Then i'll go through the radio versions of all the missing TV episodes from The likely lads, it'll be nice to fill in the gaps of the story. Bob always bangs on about Terry being workshy, this and that, but they were working together for a fair old while before the army. It's good that we have a thread to refer back to now - previous searches for stuff pertaining to this show turned up fairly sparse discussion scattered across many threads, but we've covered a lot here.

One other thing - i've never spent any time in the north-east or known many people from there, but Terry's the only person on telly or radio i've ever heard use the emphatic "though but" at the end of sentences. Is it common? I like it, i always like the mannerisms of different dialects.

[Serge]

We see the exterior of the Black Horse. It's always a bit odd seeing shots like that for places you've only seen as studios, they're somehow never quite as you imagine. But the lone illuminated star on the outside wall seems about right.

Yes! I meant to mention that we finally see the exterior. It weirdly looks like it's facing onto a patch of waste ground (or, I suppose, the carpark), rather than the street, and it also seems as if the men's toilets are the first thing you'd see from the street!

[monkfromhavana]

Great work Serge! It turns out that my bro has the boxset, so I'm going to be working my way through them again soon.

The film is great, but it has the feeling that these movie spin-offs in the 70s seemingly all had, that it was just 3 episodes cobbled together. Rising Damp was the same (with great, but lurid disco theme tune).

[Twibbie]

I watched the film again this morning. I softened to it a little but it's still largely forgettable. It starts off well, and with Bob's turmoil about the old streets being demolished (and Terry's riposte, "Working class sentiment is an indulgence of working class people who have cracked it through football or rock and roll") you get the feeling it's going to chip away at the social issues again. There are some gorgeous location shots, especially when we see the Fat Ox being demolished. Even when they go away with Christina, Thelma's courting of Terry's domestic side could be a good source of tension.

But instead it all goes a.n.other british comedy film. Thelma and Kris get left behind at the church the minute they step off the caravan. Bob misses Terry as he leaves while Chris is packing. Terry doesn't realise it's Bob in his bed rather than Chris (why wasn't Bob on the sofa anyway?). It doesn't make any sense that Bob and Thelma get into Terry van's for privacy for their argument when they're seconds from home. By the time Bob and Terry are chasing their women round the guest house my attention is waning.

There are still some nice lines like always, and Chris chucking the vase out of the flat and it falling on to Terry's arse is one of the best bits of slapstick across the series. And the ending's ok. But it comes across as an afterthought rather than a need to create some kind of closure.

As asides, the sound mix is pretty nasty, everyone sounds very nasal and it throws you right off at the beginning. I've wondered why wasn't this included in the boxset - but it's probably because it's owned by Canal+ i guess. And speaking of the DVD, again an original tune by Mike Hugg isn't available in full as an extra.

[Serge]

Re: the sound of the film - I seem to remember the last time I saw it that Bolam's voice sounded slightly higher, as though he'd been guzzling helium prior to each shot. I might have to order it off Amazon when I get some cash, fill that gap in my collection.

[vainsharpdad]

Some people up here do use "though but"....

[Twibbie]

Thanks! I wondered if it had maybe become very antiquated which is why i've never heard anyone else say it.

[curiousbritishtelly]

WHTTLL has got one of the greatest theme tunes ever composed.

[Twibbie]

I started listening to the radio versions of the missing episodes of The likely lads. I decided to go through them in the order they were broadcast on radio rather than TV as i'd have thought that the chosen radio running order accommodated any amendments to the scripts (that being said i'm skipping radio versions of surviving TV episodes, for now at least). I downloaded these off YouTube.

First up then is Where have all the flowers gone? - you can listen here. To be honest as well as catching up on all these being fun it's put me in the mood to start another complete rewatch of the TV lot already! The chatter in the background exacerbates the poor audio quality at the wedding scene, and a lot of the opening material is ropey, but the subsequent scenes really pick up. It's interesting that Bob's justification for hanging on to all his old tat is a prelude to the same argument he makes in Storm in a tea chest. We get an early reference to Terry's notorious autograph collection, with the exact phrase - "Cheers Terry, Sherpa Tenzing" - that we hear in Guess who's coming to dinner. But Bob's bear is called Henry here, rather than Norman. As the episode gathers pace there are some great lines. "There's only you me and the linesman left" is hallmark Likely lads. As is Terry's justification for his "bedroom chair".

Next up will be Baby it's cold outside. In the unlikely event that the person who shared all these is reading, thanks a bundle.

[Twibbie]

Much like Where have all the flowers gone?, Baby it's cold outside is another slow starter to the point that i thought it was going to be one of those weaker episodes. As it happens the plotting is pretty thin but the dialogue produces some scorching lines as soon as Terry and Bob meet the baby. The contrast between the way the pair of them handle the baby writes itself, with Terry's panicked "She's having a spasm or something!" and worry that the baby's head "didn't feel very secure" cast opposite Bob's laughable baby-talk. There are more great one-liners once their dates arrive.

Outward bound is pretty much the opposite, it starts quickly but loses steam. It's a "field" episode like The great race although it's closer to the film really. A few good lines aside it's a misfire. Terry's reluctance to take his top off in sun seems somehow out of character. He's always self-conscious about being "wiry" but it's hard to believe that he won't even take his top off in the sun when he's always looking to get his and women's kit off as quickly as possible elsewhere. It's funny how Terry and Bob always like the different girls out of a pair and never the same one. Are there any exceptions, any times they genuinely fight over the same one? A couple of borderline cases maybe, but no heartfelt squabbles that i can think of.

[Serge]

Cheers for the write-ups on these. I'd give them a listen myself if it wasn't for my hard-wired aversion to radio....

[Twibbie]

Not sure i've really got a solution there - i find it hard to listen to comedy when i'm at the computer because i get easily distracted browsing and such. Maybe try listening when you go to bed? Or while you're cooking dinner? I associate ISIHAC and Meet David Sedaris exclusively with doing the dinner.

It's funny, there's a scene in Outward bound where they're walking down the road trying to hitch a lift which i'm imagining was funnier to hear than it would have been to see, although that could have been because it was changed in the adaptation for radio. At some point i'll probably give the radio versions of the surviving TV episodes a whirl to see how much they change. God i'd be made up if any of the TV versions of these turned up. I suppose most of what's not been found by now probably never will be, but The other side of the fence must have been found after the first issue of the DVD as it's listed as a bonus feature and "New to DVD" in my boxset.

[Serge]

Ah no, it's worse than that - I literally cannot listen to the radio without getting bored after about 2 minutes. I need the visuals otherwise it just passes me by completely. I can happily listen to music on its own, though only if it's something I've chosen to listen to rather than music on the radio.

[Twibbie]

The talk of the town is yet another slow starter, it's funny how these episodes seem to follow the same pacing of gentle scene-setting before the script becomes more biting further down the line. John Henderson jarrs a bit as Cloughie and Susan Jameson retrospectively sounds timid as Thelma, although her characaterisation does hint at a different relationship with Bob than the one we see in Whatever. There's a bit of very soft jabbing in Jack's direction which is unusual ("That's why i got married." "That's not what i heard", another suggestion of an unmentioned back-story). The short shrift everyone has for Blakey makes me want to rewatch The other side of the fence. Bob's tough pep talk in the pub is fantastically atypical of him and all the funnier for it ("Look Thelma Chambers, get off my back. Just leave me alone. Finish. I don't know what you're after but you're not having it... from me.") In fact it slightly foreshadows the "i refuse to discuss the matter" business from The expert. I think this may also be the earliest reference we have to Dougie? I don't recall any mention of his relationship with Thelma in Conduct unbecoming.

Anchors aweigh is gag-laden. There are so many quotable lines, and a lot of the sort of effortless dialgoue which is the byword for Clement and La Frenais scripting:

Bob: You know what women are like at sea!
Terry: No i don't. Do you?
Bob: Well it's a well-known fact, they go mad for it!
Terry: Do they? And how do you know, you've only been across the South Shields ferry. Do they go mad on that? By, you'd have to be quick though, you're only at sea three minutes.

As in The talk of the town we hear Bob's latterly familiar scolding of Terry. "You've never liked Thelma, have you?"

There's little incisive commentary in either of these two episodes but Anchors aweigh is a solid half-hour of comedy. Unfortunately it's the nature of these recordings that the audio quality dampens the impact of some of the dialogue.

[Serge]

I think this may also be the earliest reference we have to Dougie? I don't recall any mention of his relationship with Thelma in Conduct unbecoming.

Interesting....it's hard to imagine Thelma going out with Dougie, even for one date. Then again, it's even harder to imagine her ever getting together with Terry, but she did (allegedly).

[Ignatius_S]

Little bit of a tangent, but there was an excellent article about the mythologizing of the Kray Twins - http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/03/the-selling-of-the-krays-how-two-mediocre-criminals-created-their-own-legendlegends.

One of the people mentioned in the article is Maureen Flanagan, an actress and model who was also hairdresser to the Krays' mother and something of a confidante – she recently penned this article: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/08/behind-the-legend-how-accurate-is-tom-hardys-krays-drama

Apparently she was in The Likely Lads!

The talk of the town is yet another slow starter, it's funny how these episodes seem to follow the same pacing of gentle scene-setting before the script becomes more biting further down the line. John Henderson jarrs a bit as Cloughie and Susan Jameson retrospectively sounds timid as Thelma, although her characaterisation does hint at a different relationship with Bob than the one we see in Whatever.... I think this may also be the earliest reference we have to Dougie? I don't recall any mention of his relationship with Thelma in Conduct unbecoming.....

That's the episode that I mentioned where the girl's name has been changed to Thelma Chambers for the radio version, when in the TV one it was Helen. The actress who played the latter wasn't available for the radio recording so I wonder if that was the reason for the name change.

Later on, there's an television and radio episode called Love and Marriage where Helen and Duggy crop up – they're married and have a baby. Duggy is very domesticated and the lads haven't seen him for months and they seem to be old friends... possibly becoming mates after Talk of the Town?

[Pdine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrfzjZA-hqI

[Twibbie]

That's the episode that I mentioned where the girl's name has been changed to Thelma Chambers for the radio version, when in the TV one it was Helen. The actress who played the latter wasn't available for the radio recording so I wonder if that was the reason for the name change.

Later on, there's an television and radio episode called Love and Marriage where Helen and Duggy crop up – they're married and have a baby. Duggy is very domesticated and the lads haven't seen him for months and they seem to be old friends... possibly becoming mates after Talk of the Town?

Brill, thanks for filling all this stuff in for us.

[Twibbie]

Not all of these are golden, but i do wish you had the capacity to give them a listen Serge, you'd love a lot of the lines. Just the optimism of the opening credits is fun.

Friends and neighbours introduces us to Terry's grandad (introduced as "Mr. Pops"(!) although no-one refers to him as that during the episode... ). He has some nice early exchanges, especially with Bob ("I've always liked your mother." "So have i."). We get multi-faceted Bob here, with his preening metrosexual side when describing his fragrance ("It's an adventure in masculine freshness" :-D), his womanising side as he purrs to Lorna and his comical southern accent met by Terry's sharp response ("If i'd caught him his dancing days would've been over."). Then the true submissive Bob shines through at the end  ("You mean you're going back in there?" "Yes... tea's ready."). Again, no grand themes, but an excellent exploration of Bewes' range as a performer.